From the song, "Mr Tambourine Man"
2007-09-13 05:16:33 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music ➔ Lyrics
This was written when Dylan was experimenting with
a) a lot of drugs
b) different methods of songwriting, especially free association. It is influenced particularly by the french symbolists poets, especially Rimbaud. It is more about images than meanings.
P.S. "Mr. Tambourine Man" was Bruce Langhorne
Edit: Interesting....The answerer below me gave me a thumbs down and "corrected" me on every point. Its a shame she apparently didn't comprehend my answer.
1) I said drugs, not LSD
2) I said it was written at a time when Dylan was doing a lot of drugs, NOT that it was written "on" drugs, or even that it was influenced by drugs. I can tell you from personal experience that regular use of drugs, whetrher it is LSD, STP, speed, or whatever, alters your perception even when you are not high
3) It is WIDELY accepted that Bruce Langhorne is Mr. Tambourine man. In fact, I have a direct quote from Dylan attesting to that fact. Not that that means anything, other than as a rebuttal to her claim otherwise. I have been researching Dylan for more than thirty years Sherpa, how about you?
2007-09-18 22:01:38 · answer #1 · answered by Martin 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.
What he's talking about is the evening when it disappears into night, that he should be sleeping but instead is out.
First, we don't know for certain if Bruce Langhorne is in fact, Mr. Tambourine Man. Second, there's no firm evidence that this song is about Dylan's experiments with LSD. However, Dylan states that this song was inspired by the image of a session musician shaking a tambourine and partly by a trip he took from Los Angeles to New York. He mailed packages of marijuana to post offices along the route so that he would not be caught with the drug. You can't trust Dylan to always tell the truth about his own past or songs, but that may be correct. Dylan also said that drugs played no part in the song.
2007-09-19 14:29:53 · answer #2 · answered by Sherpa 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think it has to do with it being night time (the sand man thing). But he is not tired yet so he says it "left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping." So he says to the Tambourine Man, "play a song for me...I'm not sleepy and I have no place I'm going to." That's what I got out of it, but of course I could be wrong.
2007-09-19 18:11:59 · answer #3 · answered by what 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course, lyrics are always open to different interpretations... but IMO this is a reference to death... "evenin's empire" could be describing the setting sun which represents the end of the day and the beginning of darkness... "returned into sand" represents earth or being burried. The entire song has many dark references that refer to death and/or facing death.
2007-09-13 12:26:48 · answer #4 · answered by KoiDragon 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It means that a long time has passed and this current state has been dust for many years.
Listen to a similar saying in the Moody Blues song, 'Lovely to See You Again'. They sing 'Tell us what you've seen in faraway forgotten lands
Where empires have turned back to sand. "
That is talking about the passing of ages.
Good question!
2007-09-13 12:22:23 · answer #5 · answered by vgordon_90 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It might mean that the person is on the way to go to sleep. The empire means he is king of the night and the sand is the sand that gets into his eyes and makes him sleepy
2007-09-20 15:34:57 · answer #6 · answered by Daco 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
maybe he means that the whole empire has broken down into sand, where it originally came from.
Possibly meaning, that just because something has built up and evolved, doesnt mean it cant return to how it was before.
2007-09-13 12:23:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
poetic for dawn sunset im from minnesota have to know dylan its a prerequesit lol
2007-09-19 14:47:37 · answer #8 · answered by kellie r 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Everything is temporary?---
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand
But still not sleeping
I'm ready to go anywhere
I'm ready for to fade
into my own parade
cast your dancin' spell my way
I promise to go under it
2007-09-13 12:22:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. All things are ephemeral.
2007-09-13 12:40:31 · answer #10 · answered by Level 7 is Best 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋